“What’s the matter, Ness, bad memories,” Enrico sneers.
Before I know what’s happening, Clayton has decked Enrico in the jaw, but when he goes in for a second blow, Zach and Jeff throw him back. Enrico rubs his jaw and glares at him before he turns back to me, standing up straight.
“Control your dog,” he hisses at me.
“Where you been, Enrico?” I ask, ignoring his comment and regaining my footing.
“Right here. I was lucky to get out in time with nary a scratch on me,” he says, stepping back and motioning his hands over his arms.
Gino smirks and I hear a giggle come from Aryana. Out of the corner of my eye I can see that Jeff has his arms crossed and is glaring at them. I step up to Enrico but he doesn’t budge. He has that twinkle in his eyes, like he knows something we don’t. His lip curls up slightly.
“I hear New Orleans is nice this time of year,” he smiles slightly as I scowl. “I’m told the food there is exquisite.”
He laughs as I wince slightly. I regain my stoic expression quickly, not wanting to give him any idea how much Dominique means to me. He frowns when he sees that he doesn’t get the response he wants so he tries another tactic.
“Ah, looks like a family,” he motions to some of the covered bodies. “That’s always such a shame. Don’t you agree, Ness?”
I grab my gun but I’m not quick enough to stop Clayton from tackling me out of the way. Enrico laughs again, that evil, cocky laugh. That laugh that says he’s the one in charge. He raises his hand in the air and smirks at me.
“Come, the stench is going to spoil my meal,” he says to Gino and Aryana.
I wrestle loose of Clayton’s hold in time to see Enrico pause in front of Michelle. He turns to her and there’s that look again. What is he up to?
“My condolences, Mrs. Martin,” he says casually.
Michelle turns ghostly white as her head shifts to the various corpses lying on the ground. Aryana snickers again. Michelle hears her response and ascertains quickly that she is the one responsible for Martins death. Her head shoots in their direction, and while the rest of us are trying to absorb the fact that Enrico just called her Mrs. Martin, she leaps and, with stealth like precision, she has Aryana in a headlock and her gun cocked and pointed at Gino’s forehead.
“Oh shit!” Jeff hollers as he darts over there.
Jeff pushes Gino just as she discharges her weapon causing the bullet to graze Gino’s ear versus killing him outright. I glance at Michelle and see that she is literally choking the life out of Aryana. Her face is blank, like some robot programmed to kill. It takes both Zach and Clayton to wrestle her arms loose. Her expression doesn’t change as Aryana falls to the ground, gasping for air. Suddenly, Michelle’s breath hitches and she just starts saying no, over and over again.
“I’ll have your badge for this, Ness! You’re whole team, every last one of them. You’re mine. Do you hear me?” Enrico yells as he helps Aryana up and looks to Gino who is holding his ear that’s bleeding through his fingers.
I draw my gun and point it at Enrico. “Get out of here before I shoot you myself.”
He stares at me and he can see from the coolness in my eyes that I am serious. He doesn’t say anything as he motions for Gino and Aryana. Aryana turns to Michelle and Michelle lurches towards her, only to be thwarted by Clayton. I draw my other gun, holding it on them until they are in their car and gone. I then turn to Michelle and stand right in front of her, staring directly in her eyes.
“Mrs. Martin?” I question.
Her eyes close and her body slouches before she drops to her knees. This is the first time I have ever seen her show any sign of weakness whatsoever. The same woman, who had she not been stopped, would have killed both Gino and Aryana only moments before, is sobbing into her hands. I glance at my team and they all have the same bewildered and confused expression on their faces as I do.
“See if Martin is among the bodies?” I say sharply. When none of them move I narrow my eyes. “Today!”
Slowly they shuffle away and I notice Jeff glance back at Michelle. He looks angry and maybe a little hurt. I think he might have had a bit of a crush on her. I shake my head at the thought and then crouch down before her, holstering my weapon. She looks defeated and it’s the same look I imagine I had on my face at the scene of my family’s death so long ago.
“Michelle, I can’t help you if you don’t talk to me.”
She lets out a warped laugh and looks up at me with dark eyes. Yeah, I know we all say that. It’s our standard line. Most of the time we can’t help at all, but in this case it’s the god awful truth. If she doesn’t start talking, bad things are going to happen to her and I won’t be able to prevent it.
“Are you married to Tony Martin?” I ask with an arch of my brow.
She breathes in deeply and nods.
“Are you divulging information to the Sicignano?” I ask, unable to hide my angry tone.
She immediately shakes her head as the team filters back over to us. I glance at them and they are shaking their heads. Either he’s not there or the bodies are too charred for recognition. Neither possibility is a good one.
“Boss, there’s...” Jeff pauses and glances at Michelle’s distraught face before looking back at me. “There’s no way to tell.”
I look at Michelle. “Did Tony wear anything that might identify him?”
She wipes her eyes and runs her fingers through her short hair. Swallowing, she steadies herself. “He always carried a small pendant. It was an eagle.” She digs in her pocket and pulls out a small silver eagle charm. “It’s like this but bigger.” She looks at the charm and her brows bunch together. “It’s a symbol,” she pauses, “like a wedding ring.”
“Michelle, what the hell did you do?” I ask, shaking my head.
“I’ll tell you everything, just, not here. Can we go back to our office?” she begs.
I stand. “We have at least an hour before we can do anything on the scene. I don’t want to leave the site, so no, we can’t go back to the office. Let’s get out of earshot though.”
She hesitantly stands and we all walk in the alley away from prying ears but where we can see who is coming and going. She leans against the wall, looking at the ground as she rubs the charm between her fingers.
“We met at the academy but didn’t date or anything. We were just friends. About eighteen months ago we saw each other again. It turns out we were both working the same case,” she looks up at us. “Infiltrating Carmine Sicignano’s enterprise.”
“So Martin’s an agent?” Jeff asks incredulously.
She nods. “He got in deeper than anyone. Carmine trusted him completely. One night, Tony came to see me. He was upset. Things were getting bad with Carmine. He had to do more and more to keep his trust. He was afraid that he was losing himself. One thing led to another,” she flinches slightly and looks as if she might cry once more. Finally she swallows. “Cut to four months ago. He came to me and told me that Carmine was sending him to Chicago to help Enrico. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but he was worried. He wanted me out. He needed me out. I went to my field director and he arranged for me to ‘die’, and then not long after that Tony was gone.”
“So are you working for us or the bureau?” Zach asks angrily.
She frowns slightly. “The bureau,” she replies hesitantly. “Tony lost contact with his liaison. No one knew what happened. I was transferred here to you guys to try and find him. The bureau suspected an inside man, they went with the assumption that we couldn’t trust anyone. We knew Enrico was looking at guns so ATF was the logical choice for me. I couldn’t divulge anything to you guys.”
“You should have, damn it!” I yell. “But instead you let us spin our heels when you could have helped us track this bastard down.”
“I did help you. I gave you all kinds of information on Carmine. I…” she starts but I cut her off.
“You betrayed our trust. You betrayed MY trust. I had you in
my home,” I shout. “I trusted you to lead the team in my absence,” I finish angrily.
She looks down, not saying anything. In fact, we are all quiet. I’m not sure what everyone else is thinking, but I’m pissed. I can’t believe she didn’t tell me about this, especially after all the shit that’s gone down. Finally, Clayton breaks the silence.
“I thought there were rules in the bureau that prevent agents from marrying one another?” Clayton asks.
“We hid it. No one knows we’re married.”
I step up to her and get right in her face. “Enrico knows, which means Carmine does as well.”
She closes her eyes and nods.
“How did you think you could keep that a secret?” Zach interjects.
“We thought we could. We were going to finish this assignment and then quit, move to Montana or something. He wanted out. We both did,” she rambles quickly.
“Well, he’s out now,” Jeff mumbles.
“Shut up, Jeff,” Clayton utters through clenched teeth.
It’s too late though. Michelle hears him and attacks. I can feel my phone buzzing but I can’t check it. I need to take care of this. Michelle is pummeling Jeff with her bare fists. He manages to get a few defensive hits in before we are able to pull her off of him, still flailing her arms and legs. God what a nightmare!
“For Christ’s sake, Jeff, she lost her damn husband, show some compassion!” Zach states angrily.
“Hold on though. Martin attacked Valentino. Why would he do that?” Clayton asks.
“Tony didn’t know I was here. Like I said, we lost contact when he left. He didn’t want me involved in any of this, but I had to know he was okay. I volunteered to come to Chicago, hell, I begged for this assignment.” She turns to me apologetically. “I’m sorry, Valentino. He beat you up because you brought me to Enrico. You put me on Enrico’s radar, the exact opposite place he wanted me.”
I sigh and nod. I can’t say that I blame him. Would I do any different to someone that put Dominique in harm’s way? And when I truly think about it, Martin didn’t actually say he was there for Enrico. I just made the assumption that he was. I run my hand over my face when I feel my phone buzz again. I pull it out of my pocket and see I have two messages. One message is from Dominique asking me to call her and then the next message is from Anderson asking if Michelle is with me? I text my response and get another back quickly, telling me to keep her there.
“Anderson is on his way here,” I say, pocketing my phone. I turn to Michelle again. “Did Martin shoot De la Fosse?”
She shrugs. “I don’t know, Valentino. I just…” she shakes her head. “I don’t know. I haven’t talked to him since before you left for New Orleans. He never came back from there.”
I start pacing. I need to figure this out quick because once Anderson gets here she will be shipped back to the FBI and they won’t tell us anything! I stop pacing and step in front of Michelle again. I stare directly in her eyes and I know that she sees fierceness there because that’s what I am. This man killed my family and just made an implied threat against Dominique. I need to know what she knows.
“You tell me everything, Michelle, and I mean everything, from New York to now!” I hiss out.
She nods and breathes in before going into painstaking detail about her time in New York. Elaborating on how she and Tony competed against each other in the academy. How shocked she had been when she realized that he was also on that same case as her. Both played their parts, not acknowledging the other, and hoping that neither had gone rogue. They didn’t interact at all that first eight months until the night he came to her home. It hadn’t started out as anything but friendship. He needed to release the things he had seen, the things he had done with someone, someone safe, that had just as much to lose as he did. She then talked about the night they decided to marry. They knew they shouldn’t, but he was afraid something would happen to him and he wanted her taken care of. They couldn’t wear rings or jewelry and on a fluke had decided on using the charms as their wedding bands. Something they could both carry inconspicuously that would remind them of each other. A month later he was gone, with no word. No one in the agency knew what had happened to him.
“That’s it, that’s how I ended up in Chicago.”
“What if I hadn’t picked you to be on my team?” I ask.
She shrugs. “Someone would have had an accident,” she says with a slight smile.
“And the night of the raid, did you tip them off?” I continue with my questions.
“No,” she says shaking her head. “The reason I was so close to the restaurant was because I had been staking it out. The picture you took was the first time I had seen Tony in over three months. I thought maybe I could catch him, but I didn’t. When we came through the door, I could tell he was angry seeing me there but I couldn’t say anything to you guys at the time.”
“Have you had contact since then?” Clayton asks with his arms crossed.
She nods. “Yes, I followed him, found where he was staying.”
“Did he at least give you any information or did you guys just screw around?” Jeff asks, rubbing his lip that’s still bleeding.
Michelle glares at him and I snap my fingers, drawing her attention back to me. “Ignore him. I need to know what Tony said.”
She gives Jeff one last menacing glare and then runs her hands through her hair again. “He said the guns are coming in through New Orleans. But Enrico is the real issue. He’s trying to work out some back-door deal with Komarovski behind Carmine’s back. Tony thinks that Carmine knows, but he wasn’t in the loop anymore. He was supposed to contact Carmine the last night I saw him, which was this past Tuesday. When you reported seeing him in New Orleans, I was surprised, so he must have left Tuesday night or Wednesday morning.”
Her attention is diverted and we all glance towards the entrance of the alley to see Anderson and two other people walking towards us. By the way the two other men are walking, I can tell they are with the bureau. They look pissed, as does Anderson. Michelle turns back to us and sighs.
“Agent Jones, we’d like a word,” Anderson says crisply.
“I’m sorry,” she says before turning. “Yes, sir,” she answers, walking towards them.
“Masterson, I need you as well.”
“But I need to be here,” I state annoyed.
Anderson narrows his eyes. “No, you need to be wherever the hell I tell you to be.”
Okay, he’s really pissed. He definitely didn’t know that Michelle was working undercover. I turn to the guys, knowing that my time is limited.
“Document everything, do you understand?” I say in hushed tones.
“We’ll leave no stone unturned,” Zach whispers.
“Now, Masterson!” Anderson bellows.
“Find Tony! If he’s one of the bodies, we need to know. It sounds like Enrico knew he was undercover. He’s killed enough people. I want him!”
They nod. I glance over my shoulder and see Anderson with his hands on his hips, looking like he’s ready to take out the first person to cross him.
“Text me if you find out anything,” I say rushed.
“We will. Go, before you’re in trouble too,” Clayton says quickly.
I turn and follow Anderson out of the alley. He looks livid, as do the men he is with. None of them are talking to Michelle. This is going to be a long day. I then remember that Dominique had texted me. It will have to wait because it looks like I’m not going to be able to do anything for quite a while.
24 Under New Management
Dominique Walker
August 2nd
I close my phone, smiling like a freaking idiot. It’s weird, but just knowing that he made it back to Chicago in one piece makes me feel good inside, like I can breathe again. I know he’s all right and I can talk to him again soon. I glance up and see that Santiago is eyeing me expectantly. He came home over an hour ago and we have been talking nonstop since his arrival.
�
��My God! Dominique, you’re in love with him, aren’t you?” he asks knowingly.
I throw my head against the back of the couch and nod. “It’s too soon, isn’t it?” I ask looking up at him.
He shrugs. “Love happens when you least expect it. Who says there’s some perfect equation for how much time should elapse before your head allows the words your heart said long before to come out.”
“He’s been through so much,” I say with a sigh.
“So have you, Dominique.”
I nod. “He’s very intense. Not in a bad way. He’s just one of those guys that go all out, all the time. Know what I mean?”
He grins at me.
“Not like that, you perv, well, I mean he’s great like that as well but…” I pause and walk to my purse, pulling out Betty.
“What the hell, Dominique.”
“I know,” I reply as I sit back down. “He took me shooting and bought this for me. He said I needed protection when he wasn’t with me. And then yesterday he was very adamant that I keep her with me at all times.” I look at the gun and run my fingers along it. “He’s worried about me.”
When I look up, Santiago is staring at me open-mouthed. “I don’t know what to say.”
“This thing at the restaurant is big. He thinks that Phillipe got killed because he wanted out, that maybe he liked me.”
“Phillipe did like you, Dominique,” Santiago interjects with a roll of his eyes.
I sigh. “I know, but I never did anything to make him believe that I liked him in that way.”
Santiago nods and then furrows his brows. “Are you sure you should be carrying a gun around?”
I shrug. “I kind of feel safe with it, plus...” I pause, remembering the gun range and him giving it to me. “He gave this to me.”
He doesn’t say anything right away and I can tell he is assessing the situation, feeling it out, so to speak. He’s always been that way. Never one to think things through, just responds off the feelings he gets. He blows out a breath and gives me a small smile.
“Well, Jackson likes him, and so do I, so I guess I just need to trust that he’s doing the right thing with you, but honestly, if he is so worried about you, why didn’t he take you with him or something. Instead, he gives you a loaded gun to carry.”
Retaliatory Justice (The Talionic Files #1) Page 24
